Thursday, March 3, 2016

The American light in the "beacon on the hill" is flickering from suffocation....thanks to Trump

Der Spiegel calls it Madness!

People on the streets of Great Britain cry, “It’s
terrifying!”

The president of CBS declares that Trump will be
good for corporate profits.

And the mucky-mucks in the Republican Party are
shovelling propaganda into former candidate Mitt Romney who is to be charged
with delivering the knock out speech intended to derail the Trump fascist
train. Now that we have the transcript of the Romney diatribe, we know that
Trump Vodka, and Trump whatever including the Trump University have all failed,
portraying Trump, not as the successful businessman he pretends but rather as a
business failure. A fraud and a con-man are essentially the themes that Romney
focussed on.

Trouble is, Romney is already emasculated as a
political figure and the masses have already been aroused in some kind of
‘rock-concert’ frenzy of uber masculinity that wreeks of racism, sexism, and
American jingoism, chauvinism and a war for the heart and the soul of the
American enterprise....Building faux universities, and skyscrapers whose glass
is falling off in Toronto, and casinos in Jersey that close and hiring
thousands of illegal immigrants, ordering the blocking of the American border
to Muslims (“until we figure this out”) and deploying eminent domain to evict
an elderly widow (unsuccessfully) will look like painting that lipstick on a
pig, when compared with a foreign policy that “bombs the hell out of them” and
“makes the Mexicans pay for a wall” and “makes America great again”!

And, not only is Romney ineffectual, the army of the
masses has already taken over the Trump campaign, and, just as the black folks
who interrupted his rally were evicted without respect, so too will all
opposition to this juggernaut be rolled over, as if the leader were one of the
bulldozers he deploys to clear the ground for his real estate projects,

“Get them out’o’here” would be a more appropriate
slogan for the Trump campaign. Any voice with whom Il Duce disagrees is
silenced. All voices of protest are considered incompetent losers. Bullying
through ad hominums will look like a frat party if this man is permitted the
keys to the White House. Kim Jong Il and Putin will be drunk with joy at some
virtual bar, hosted by the new “leader of the free world” if this man continues
to be courted by the ugly, restive and unapproachable masses of homophobes, racists,
xenophobes, and ultimately control-freaks who have “glom’d” onto this mass
movement wrapped and guilded in the kind of propaganda for which George Orwell
warned his readers.

Peace is War, War is Peace, and the Truth Ministry
is charged with re-writing history to conform with current reality, whatever
the leaders say that is in 1984. The only truth that matters is the truth that
is declared by the cabal in charge. The only truth that really matters is that
the leader is sacred and the leader is in charge, promising only good things
for the people whom he “serves”. And truth be told, (if that is still
feasible!) the only one he serves is himself, his monomaniacal ego, and his
ambition, both dramatic images for his monumental insecurity and narcissism.

Born in the middle of the second world war (1942), I
have often wondered about the courage and the defiance of my parents, that, in
the face of the most horrific stories from the “front”, they made a joint
decision to conceive their first child, after nearly eight years of marriage.
Although my father was not formally conscripted, (he was granted exemption to
serve the war machine by meeting its massive and urgent retail needs, in close
proximity to a defence production factory) he nevertheless warrants, along with
my mother, a medal of family honour for his courage, and his resilience to
serve at a much less heralded level, without the badges, the stripes and the
marching bands and the weapons. He did not tell me stories of the ‘front’
because he simply was not there. He did, however, work tirelessly to serve
those who were making the weapons and who were keeping the home ‘front’
functioning in the war effort. And his story is not especially unique; everyone
knew what they were fighting for, and what they were fighting against. And,
once again, the whole world knows that this (Trump/American) response to the
current vortex of a transitioning economy, a threatened ecosystem, a tsunami of
refugees from barely paused military conflict, a rising tide of nuclear ambitions,
the loss of jobs at home and the focus on undocumented immigrants...is the last
thing the world needs, wants, deserves or can cope with.

And, in this struggle we are all Americans. And we
are joined in a struggle to thwart these personal ambitions that are threatening
to subvert not only the American democracy, but also to extinguish the signal
American democracy sends around the world for millions who continue to see in
America a ‘beacon on a hill’ for themselves and their children and
grandchildren. And whether we claim American as our homeland, or either of the
political parties in that country as our’s, or we are citizens of a different
country, on whatever continent, for citizens of the world, standing idly by and
remaining silent is not an option. We
are all, like the woman in the CBS interview from London, terrifiedby the prospect of a Trump presidency.
We need to read Chris Hedges column from today, on truthdig.com (The Revenge of
the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism) and we all need to speak up
at whatever water fountain we frequent and send cash if we are able to a
campaign like that of Bernie Sanders (who raised $40 million in February, compared
with only $32 for Hillary Clinton). This fight, not only for the White House,
but for the future of the planet, requires the voices of all reasonable,
compassionate and committed individuals who seek peace, collaboration, clean
air and water and who know that greed and narcissism are deep and heavily defended
enemies of the public good although they represent the values of too many who
do truly stand to profit from a Trump presidency.

Blacks living in the inner cities are not going to
get the jobs Trump promises; nor are they going to get the free tuition and the
education that Bernie Sanders promise. Women are going to watch the number of
abortion clinics close, just as they have already in Texas, in the case
currently before the crippled Supreme Court (following the death of Antonin
Scalia, and the refusal of the Republican Senate even to hold confirmation
hearings and a vote to confirm). Muslims and Mexicans, both those already
living in the United States, and those seeking to enter, are going to face
increasing jolts of racism, masquerading as pity, under Trump’s leadership and
example. ISIS, Al Nusra, Al Shabbab, amd all the other radical Islamic
terrorists are, and will continue to find in Trump an energizer bunny
recruiting machine. (One Muslim from Egypt has already been taken into custody,
and will face a deportation hearing tomorrow, following a “bad joke” Facebook
page in which he allegedly offered to knock Trump off, presenting the offer to
his friends in the Muslim community who were offended by Trump’s throwing the
Muslim community under the bus.

Letting ISIS remove Assad, and then taking over what’s
left of Syria, as Trump would have us believe, is his choice of foreign policy,
if anyone can bend his/her mind around that intellectual flatulence. Oh, and by
the way, Trump wants to “bomb the hell out of ISIS”.....on his way to taking on
China in a trade war, while also building that fifty-foot wall to keep out the
Mexicans, most of whom are “drug dealers, prostitutes and bad people” according
to the Trump world view.

Holding fast to a single principle, aside from
self-aggrandizement, is something Trump is unable and unwilling to do.
Consequently, he can and will deny anything and everything upon being
challenged and if he were to assume office, could and would do whatever he “liked”
with the same kind of bravado he displays when he tells the world that his
voters are so loyal, he could shoot and kill someone on Fifth Avenue,without
losing a single vote.

No, Mr. Trump. Such as act would be immediately followed
by your arrest; your being charged and your being held for trial, pending
abail hearing, which just might not be
able to be purchased, using whatever currency you might be willing to offer.
Further, the world is beginning to see through your veil of deception, into
your cold, cold heart, notwithstanding the pleas of a small circle who think
you might be the “second coming”.

Although you have apparently escaped relatively
unscathed from all the mud that has been thrown at and on you, and although you
have succeeded in fooling some of the people some of the time, not even you can
fool all of the people all of the time.